A comprehensive multi-week exercise culminated Tuesday with the Willits City Council setting its priorities for the next two years.

The top two goals are the Baechtel Road-Railroad Avenue connection, and establishing priorities for street paving, including the use of the city's ?-cent sales tax funds. Each member of the council considered the Baechtel Road extension as either a top or a near-top priority.

The process began with the selection of a facilitator, who interviewed each councilmember and key members of the city staff in the weeks leading up to the April 2 goal-setting meeting. Councilmembers were asked to submit individual lists of their top seven priorities to the facilitator. The facilitator then compared the lists and found a number of common issues, boiling down the list of 35 items into a final list of 21 priority goals. The council then reviewed the goal statement for each one until they were ready to vote on them.

Each councilmember was given 40 points to distribute among the 21 goals. The maximum points each person could allocate for any goal was four. The top vote-getters were declared "major city goals;" the second tier was deemed "other important goals" and the lowest group was considered "address as resources permit."

City staff is now tasked with using these goals to initiate the budget process and assure the city's scant resources are allocated appropriately to address the council's highest priorities.

Public comment in this phase of the process was minimal, in part due to the compressed time frame of the current budget cycle. Interim City Manager Adrienne Moore assured the public there would be plenty of future opportunities to provide input concerning priorities during the development of this year's budget.

The next vote-getter, setting street paving priorities, was considered a "high" or "very high" priority by Mayor Holly Madrigal, Councilman Bruce Burton and Councilman Larry Stranske. It was considered a "medium" priority to Councilman Ron Orenstein and Councilwoman Madge Strong.

Replacement of the Main Street waterline north from Commercial Street to Casteel Lane was ranked as the council's third most important priority. Burton and Stranske considered this "important" or "very important"; the other three considered it a "medium" priority.

Development of a water infrastructure master plan was ranked fourth. Strong and Stranske considered this "important" or "very important"; the other three considered it of "medium" importance.

The numerical score for the following topics was nearly identical.

Cross-certification of utility personnel was considered of "very high" importance only by Stranske. Improved traffic circulation west of Main Street was a "high" or "very high" priority for Madrigal, Burton and Strong, but received zero priority from Stranske. Planning for a post-bypass Main Street was a "high" or "very high" priority for Madrigal and Burton; it received zero priority from Stranske. A sewer infrastructure master plan was considered a "very high" priority for Stranske and a "low" priority by Burton.

The "medium" priority list included job retention, creation and preservation; preservation of industrial-zoned property; general fund reserve policy; assessment of the city's organization; and development of a long-term water supply.

"Lower" priority items included improvement in service delivery; bicycle and pedestrian improvements; solar energy investments; emergency preparedness; Camp Lane paving and the feasibility of a "strong mayor" form of government.